Books and Videos

The best way to learn InDesign (or any program) is to play with it for days and weeks and months... But most people don't have time to play—they need to get their work done today. Here's a list of some of the best available resources to turn to when you need an answer quickly.

Books

By Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, and Bob Bringhurst
You'll find everything you need here to successfully master InDesign's advanced page-layout tools; manage color; build XML templates; and run your own custom InDesign scripts. You'll also find complete coverage of all of InDesign's new features. This is The Book on InDesign. If you are still using older versions of InDesign, here are links for

Check out our collection of great InDesignSecrets eBooks (in PDF format), including The InDesignSecrets Guide to Graphic Effects, InDesignSecrets Top 40 Tips, The InDesignSecrets Guide to the New Features in InDesign CS5, and The InDesignSecrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam

by Sandee Cohen
Need a good book to get up to speed quickly in InDesign? Sandee Cohen's InDesign Visual QuickStart Guide is the way to go. Think of it this way: You're definitely going to want the Visual QuickStart Guide for the first two months you use InDesign.

by Michael "the indesigner" Murphy
Ignore the "CS4" in the title -- this book is relevant for any InDesign version. If you want to get more efficient with InDesign, you need to use styles, and this book shows you how!

by David Bergsland
Want to do everything in InDesign, including write your book?! This ebook from longtime author and book designer/producer David Bergsland covers a lot of ground. David explains the focus of the book as "for people who are designing books and booklets, non-fiction in specific--beginning with very limited capital and few personnel resources."

by Jim Maivald and Cathy Palmer
If you want to get up to speed with XML and InDesign, you are really, really going to need some training, and this is one of the best resources around. Note that Jim also recorded this as a video title at lynda.com

By David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción (2005, Blatner Books in association with Peachpit Press)
Page-layout guru David Blatner and veteran trainer Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepción have scoured the online forums, interviewed Adobe engineers, and gathered together answers to over 200 of the most-commonly asked questions. Written in a sassy, fun-to-read style, this book tackles every major InDesign problem with a lay-it-on-the-line solution. Adobe InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs is for anyone who has been using InDesign long enough to realize that the solution to their problems isn't always as obvious as one would expect!

By Pariah S. Burke 2010, Sybex
Written in an easy-to-read, straightforward style, Mastering InDesign is a full-color, heavily-illustrated book that covers the InDesign features you need to know about with a focus on workflow efficiency. Pariah's humor and training skills definitely come through!

by Nigel French
You want better-looking type, right? Everyone who likes type and typography and wants to make their text look great should check out this book. Nigel also has several great titles in the lynda.com library.

by Dorothy Hoskins (Kindle Edition only)
Here's another great book about using XML with InDesign by someone who knows XML inside and out. This is currently a kindle-only edition from O'Reilly books (but you can read it using the Kindle software on your desktop web browser or iPad).

by David Blatner, Steve Werner, and Christopher Smith
Okay, so this book is a bit old, but if you're still using PageMaker or QuarkXPress 4 or 5, then you're probably a bit outdated, too. This book will help you make the transition from those programs to InDesign! (The first edition of this book was called "InDesign for QuarkXPress Users.")

Videos

Several of us here at InDesignSecrets have recorded video titles at lynda.com, including David Blatner, Anne-Marie Concepcion, Mike Rankin, and James Fritz. Sign up for a free one-week trial at lynda.com with this link: http://www.lynda.com/trial/indesignsecrets
If you like it, a monthly or yearly subscription is an inexpensive to keep up with your skills and watch over 80,000 movies! It's an all-you-can-watch extravaganza!

Videos We Recommend

Looking to learn InDesign at lynda.com, but don't know where to start? Check out one of these highly-recommended titles:

Other Resources

InDesign Magazine is the first monthly PDF periodical devoted entirely to Adobe InDesign and to the vibrant community of InDesign professionals. With editorial direction by page-layout guru and author David Blatner and creativepro.com editor in chief Mike Rankin, InDesign Magazine brings you the in-depth features, reviews, and tutorials you need to master Adobe InDesign.